"Delay is natural to a writer. He is like a surfer—he bides his time. Waits for the perfect wave on which to ride in. He waits for the surge (of emotion? of strength? of courage?) that will carry him along." (E.B. White, The Paris Review Interviews, 1969)

1.21.2005

The Albuquerque East Downtown Organization Charette was one that my Graduate Technical Communication class used as a model. The above-linked story gives an update about how it is progressing (and it IS progressing). The types of things that Jeff Grabill describes in his scholarship are unfolding. It's interesting how Byron Hawk's notions of "post-techne" apply to these situations. A plan has to float through the civic space (rearranging the forces, trajectories as it goes), allowing for people to attach, disattach, and re-attach at different points. People describe how space and identity connect (neighborhood associations forbidding alcohol sales near a church while the church defends said alcohol sales--both taking positions relative to property values and not "morality" stands. Meanwhile, the city council representative who is running for mayor takes the force out of the bourgeoisie argument by forbidding sale of "singles" and fortified wine. Always a class dimension...).